Sun Sentinel's Pulitzer Prize: A proud day for us, for you

April 15, 2013|By Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

To win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is an enormous honor for the Sun Sentinel, a recognition of our commitment to telling you what's really going on, beneath the surface, beyond the day's headlines.

It's also a shot in the arm for all the journalists who work hard here every day, proud to be associated with a news organization of national prominence.

But mostly, it gives us the chance to applaud the work of investigative reporters Sally Kestin and John Maines, along with editors John Dahlburg and Dana Banker, who produced a remarkable series of stories about police officers who are some of the worst speeders on the road.

Kestin and Maines used SunPass toll records, GPS devices and shoe-leather reporting to document how some cops, mostly off duty, would drive their cruisers at 100, 120, even 130 miles per hour. Along the way, these cops killed or changed people's lives, yet punishment was rare. And on occasion, they would try to shield one another from the consequences.

What's most gratifying is how South Florida communities responded to the reporters' revelations. 163 officers were disciplined. One who consistently drove over 100 mph in his off hours was fired. Some officers lost their take-home cars. And more communities are using the Sun Sentinel's methods to monitor how cops drive their take-home cars.

"What the Sun Sentinel has done is a service to all police agencies because if they did not know they had a speeding problem, now they do," said Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa.

Too often these days, the media is seen in a negative light, somewhere south of Congress, blamed for almost every social ill. Mostly, we think people are talking about the folks on cable television who keep us all stirred up and polarized. Because experience tells us that when something is wrong in our community, the phone rings from someone who wants to know, "Could you please have a reporter look into this?"

Who else are you going to call?

Yet since the digital revolution hit newspapers, staffs are not as large as they once were, and we have to pick our shots. The strategy of Sun Sentinel Editor Howard Saltz is to cover local news like a rug, with a special emphasis on investigative journalism. After all, if not us, who else is going to dig deep on the issues that matter most close to home?

So you know, it's not easy to be an investigative journalist. No one is ever happy to see you. No one wants to return your calls. Getting a message from Sally Kestin or John Maines would have been like hearing, "Mike Wallace is on the line and wants to talk to you."

Oftentimes, as happened in this series of stories, lawyers create time-consuming and expensive barriers. Increasingly governments are raising public-record fees through the roof. And too often, the Florida Legislature follows up by passing laws that close access to public records.

But the best investigative journalists are like a dog with a bone. They never give up.

The speeding cops series stands as a testament to why great journalists get into this business: to tell the world what's going on and maybe, make a difference.

And so in our newsroom Monday, we toasted a job well done, proud in the knowledge that among the Pulitzers, the public service award is the granddaddy of them all.

And today, we rededicate ourselves to serving you, our readers and our community, and continuing to dig deep to tell you what's really going on.